Malacañang on Wednesday said House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano’s move to suspend the session is not illegal, describing it as an “astute political move” to avoid infighting over the speakership that can take place on Oct. 14.
“There was a plenary vote that they will go on break already. That means no one can question… the speakership on Oct. 14. The earliest that they can do that is in November,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque told CNN.
Roque, a former member of Congress, said this was not the first time that such an incident took place in Congress.
“So, for what it’s worth, I think you need to have the experience of Speaker Alan Cayetano because he has dealt with the same rules, not only for three terms as congressman, this is already his fourth term as congressman, but also as a two-termer senator,” he added.
Roque also said Wednesday the Palace does not expect the suspension of session at the House of Representatives to delay the passage of the P4.5 trillion national budget for 2021.
The House suspended its session until Nov. 16 after approving the general appropriations bill on second reading Tuesday.
House Majority Leader and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez on Wednesday assured President Rodrigo Duterte that the House will continue to insulate the passage of the national budget for 2021 from the speakership squabble.
Romualdez, chairman of the House committee on rules, said the passage on the national budget was part of the commitment of the House leadership to strengthen the Duterte administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Roque also told CNN he does not see any delay since the budget bill was passed on second reading, and the third and final reading is largely ceremonial.
He also said lawmakers could no longer make any amendments when a proposed law is approved on second reading.
“On third and final reading, you can no longer move for amendments. That’s already the final version of the House bill. It’s either you vote for or against the measure and now we’re expecting of course that as soon as it is printed and brought to the floor for the third reading, that all the administration parties, all those supporters of the President will cast a yes vote,” Roque added.
The House on Tuesday suspended the session after approving the proposed 2021 national budget on second reading.
The session suspension comes a week before Cayetano was expected to turn over the speakership to Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco on Oct. 14 under a term-sharing agreement brokered by President Rodrigo Duterte.
Under the deal, Cayetano would serve as House Speaker in the first 15 months of the 18th Congress while Velasco would succeed to serve for the remaining 21 months. Toward the end of his term, however, Cayetano seems reluctant to honor the “gentleman’s agreement.”
Roque said the President was not inclined to meet with Cayetano and Velasco again, and urged the two not to hold the 2021 budget hostage to their speakership row.
Roque added that there is typically a time lag between the passage of a bill on second reading and its approval on third because the bill still needs to be printed.
According to Roque, there is a “time lag” between the passage of a budget on second and third reading because the bill would still have to be printed.
“It is always the case that there is a time lag between the approval on second reading of the budget and the third reading because you’re talking about three volumes of very large books [that need] to be printed by the House,” he said.
Roque also said that since the House has already deliberated on the budget, the Senate can act on it as well. There is no requirement that the Senate must wait for the approval on third and final reading, he added.
But Senate President Vicente Sotto III said the House seems to have disregarded President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to prioritize the budget since suspending its session would not allow the budget to reach the Senate before it goes on break on Oct. 16.
Roque reminded Duterte’s allies—Cayetano and Velasco—to ensure the timely passage of the budget.
“The message of the President to both Speaker Cayetano and Lord Allan Velasco is do what you may have to do but the budget cannot be delayed. We cannot have a re-enacted budget,” he said.
In 2019, Duterte brokered a term-sharing agreement in which Cayetano would serve as the speaker until October 2020 while Velasco would take over and assume the rest of the term until 2022.
Cayetano’s move to force the early suspension of the session and the approval on second reading of the proposed budget preempted any attempt to snatch away the leadership from him at least until mid-November.
Roque said the President will not meddle in the speakership row, but he did meet with Cayetano and Velasco on Sept. 29 to thresh out disagreements over the term-sharing agreement, which the current speaker now seems reluctant to uphold.
Cayetano said Wednesday the House would pass the budget on third and final reading when it resumes session on Nov. 16.
At the same time, Cayetano urged Velasco to join discussions on the budget.
“Congressman Velasco, you are free to campaign, you are free to defame, you are free to be absent, you are free to be present. Once you have the numbers, don’t worry, I will step aside. But saying you have the numbers and having the numbers are two different things,” Cayetano said.
The House was expected to approve the budget on final reading on Oct. 9, or a week earlier than its self-imposed deadline of Oct. 14.
“What will happen is that we will be working. We will not be taking a break, and on Nov. 16, we will be voting on third reading,” Cayetano said on Facebook Live.
“Before that, there was already consent from the majority of congressmen because I will show them the budget one by one. And that’s how I was able to promise the Filipino people that would be very transparent,” he added.
Cayetano also appealed “for the understanding of our beloved Senate President and of the whole Senate.”
Cayetano said the Covid 19 pandemic had delayed the House work on the national budget because the Department of Budget and Management was a month late in submitting its draft as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.
“Let’s understand: It was not the fault of the executive that there’s COVID,” he said.
Cayetano also said the House is open to working with the Senate during the break to work on contentious provisions in the budget and to ease the bicameral conference committee deliberations.
“If the Senate wants to work with us during the break so that the bicam will be less contentious, we’re more than happy to work with you already during the break,” Cayetano said.
But some lawmakers expressed dismay over Cayetano’s move to railroad the budget bill.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said the Tuesday suspension of the plenary sessions without the prior consent of the Senate for 40 days up to Nov. 15 violated Section 16(5) of Article VI of the Constitution, which provides that “neither House during the sessions of the Congress shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.”
Moreover, Lagman said it also violates Concurrent Resolution No. 11 authorizing the suspension of sessions only from Oct. 17, 2020 to Nov. 15, 2020.
“The suspension of the House sessions came on the heels of the twin motions of Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano to terminate the deliberations on the 2021 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) and the approval of the GAB on second reading, both of which were precipitate and premature, and designed to preempt the resolution of the speakership rift while the House is in session,” Lagman said.
Lagman also lamented that “the unresolved acrimonious leadership issue is damaging both the institution and the public interest.”
The Makabayan bloc also denounced the move of the House leadership to terminate the debates on the budget, even as one of its members, party-list Rep. Ferdinand Gaite of Bayan Muna demanded the reopening of plenary deliberations on the national budget.
“Let us not abandon our mandate to thoroughly scrutinize where the nation’s money would be spent. If this is truly a Congress of the people, then let us not abandon this role. Pass a 2021 national budget that serves the people,” said Gaite.
Cayetano also assured President Duterte and the nation that Congress has enough time to approve the proposed P4.5-trillion 2021 national spending plan before yearend to avoid a reenacted budget.
But Senator Panfilo Lacson said the budget was “as good as reenacted” after the House suddenly suspended its session without approving the bill on third reading.
He said if Nov. 5 is the last day for submitting amendments by the House, there would be no way for the Senate to finish the budget and for the Palace to sign it before the year’s end.
Sotto, meanwhile, said the House should just adopt the Senate version of the budget bill if it wants to hasten deliberations at the bicameral conference committee.
If they will adopt the Senate’s version, they will have nothing to talk about at the bicam, Sotto said.
Sotto, too, said he expected a reenacted budget following the suspension of sessions in the House.
“There is no way we can finish the budget if it is not submitted to us before the mandated break after Oct 14,” Sotto said. “Don’t blame us.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said the House is the originating chamber so the Senate can only start plenary debates after official receipt of the approved House bill.
The Senate, he added, normally holds morning to midnight debates for two weeks on the general appropriations bill.
Sotto said he had talked to Cayetano Tuesday night and observed that the House had passed the budget only on second, and not third reading.
Sotto said he cannot rush the passage of the budget because he cannot stop the senators from scrutinizing the spending plan.